A Dataset on Bilateral Cooperation in Global Counterterrorism Networks

Brandon J. Kinne is an assistant professor of political science. His project, which looks at bilateral defense cooperation agreements between sovereign governments, was awarded a 2016-17 ISS Individual Research Grant. He provided this update in May 2018.

How did this project come about? What inspired it?

In a previous project, I collected extensive data on bilateral defense cooperation agreements between sovereign governments. In the course, of that project, I discovered that many governments were also signing bilateral counter-terror agreements. At the same time, there is increasing real-world evidence that governments are cooperating with one another more than ever in their efforts to eradicate terrorist threats. The lack of social scientific research on the topic made it a natural area of exploration.

How has it progressed since you received an ISS Individual Research Grant?

The grant was meant to be used solely to fund an undergrad research assistant and collect further data. Insofar as we now have much more data than we did previously, the project has progressed as expected.

What notable or surprising findings can you share at this point?

We have not yet conducted any analysis. The project will rely exclusively on inferential network models, which require complete data on all relevant actors/nodes (i.e., governments). Given that constraint, we cannot estimate models until the data have been collected in full.

What is the next step?

The next step is to continue collecting data. Thanks in part to this grant, we were able to secure additional outside funding, which will be allocated entirely toward completing the data collection. We expect to complete data collection around spring 2019.

I am currently working on book manuscript on bilateral security cooperation. I will be taking a sabbatical this fall in order to complete the book. The data collected for this project will in fact be used to test the book's core arguments. Depending on the results of the analysis, we may also submit related articles to peer-reviewed academic journals.